Wintershall

Wintershall is a house with a long history, originally a manor house dating back to the time of Edward I, with court rolls recorded around 1240. The earliest part of the present building likely dates to the mid to late 14th century, consisting of a one-bay solar and two bays of a three-bay open hall, the low end of which is missing. An early 17th-century crosswing was added to the west of the solar end. The east end of the hall was demolished when a brick building was constructed before 1765. The house was altered and extended around 1820 and again in 1927, when the open hall was rediscovered, and a stone fireplace, staircase were inserted, and much of the walls were replaced with brickwork. Further alterations took place in the late 20th century.

The oldest section is the west wing, which contains the open hall, formerly timber-framed but largely rebuilt in brick around 1927. It has a tiled roof with two brick chimneystacks. Windows are mostly 20th-century casements, including a tall four-light window divided into three tiers and a square first-floor bay. To the east is a two-storey T-wing of early 17th-century construction using Bargate stone with brick dressings and a tiled roof, the south gable retaining early 17th-century carved wooden bargeboards. The ground floor of this wing was altered in the 20th century with the insertion of pointed arches to create a garden room. To the west are larger wings built around 1765 and 1820, altered and refenestrated in 1927, and subsequently. One is tile-hung on the east side and red brick on the west, both with tiled roofs and clustered brick chimneystacks. These wings are three stories high with casement windows, some with leaded lights.

An attached red brick wall, approximately ten feet high, was constructed around 1820, alongside a low brick garden wall with stone coping, rear railings, two sets of gates, and a garden gate.

Inside, the possible mid to late 14th-century open hall retains three of its four bays: the solar, two bays of the open hall, and the service end is absent. The end truss and end of the hall have plain crownposts with jowls, and the central truss has a highly ornate, octagonal crownpost, along with a moulded dais beam and moulded wallplate. A Jacobean-style stone fireplace and a staircase were installed around 1927. The solar has a fine 1500 panelled ceiling decorated with wooden straps and bosses featuring carved decoration. The roof of the early 17th-century wing has queenstruts and side-purlins. Later wings retain an 18th-century wine cellar with wine bins and two round-headed alcoves, although the staircase was replaced around 1975. Several 20th-century fireplaces have been inserted, including reproductions and an 18th-century French grey marble fireplace, an 18th-century green and white marble fireplace with pilasters and a central panel with an urn, and an 18th-century brown marble fireplace with a central panel depicting a cherub in a chariot drawn by a lion, with cherub paterae. Several 18th-century doors also remain.